Pick Up the Pieces
by Kagedtiger
Summary: A mission goes horribly wrong and Yue and Yukito are kidnapped. It looks like getting them back can be managed, but that may be only the beginning of their problems. [slash: Touya x Yukito, OC x Yukito] [contains rape]
1. Prologue

Pick Up the Pieces  
Prologue 

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**Notes/Disclaimer: Card Captor Sakura and all its characters belong to the ever-fuzzy CLAMP. I love them dearly and am making no money from this enterprise. All I own in this is Rand, and I wouldn't even want him if I didn't have toclaim him. The idea of Touya's dad putting an addition onto the house for Yuki, as well as the idea of a magic-stealing villain, comes from the CCS fic written by the wonderful Kouri and Karasu, "Blood Bind." Do read it. It's excellent. **

**WARNING: DARK. This fic is dark, especially for the CCS universe. THERE WILL BE RAPE. So if you don't like it, don't read it. **

**ALSO. This fic is a cliche. I don't dispute that. This sort of fic has been written for nearly every genre ever made. However, it's not that often applied to the CCS universe, and at any rate, this is a particular treatment of that cliche, a new incarnation of an often told story. So I don't apologize for it. So nyeh. :sticks out tongue: **

**If you've gotten past all that and you're still here, then enjoy the story. **  
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"I don't know why my father insisted on putting a bed in your room," Touya murmured into Yuki's ear. "It's not like you ever use it. The place is more like a study than anything else."

Yuki smiled, reaching up a hand to Touya's cheek. "It's called decorum. He had to do it. Otherwise it would look like he was assuming things about our sex life. Do you honestly want your father thinking about our sex life?"

"Hmmm," said Touya thoughtfully. "Good point." His face moved downwards until his breath blew warmly against Yuki's neck. "Come to bed," he murmured.

Yuki allowed his head to fall back, groaning in pleasure. He was technically supposed to be working, but then, he had known this was likely coming before he had even sat down; if he had actually urgently needed to get this done, he wouldn't be working in Touya's room. "I should finish this," he protested anyway.

"You can do it later," Touya retorted, kissing his neck lightly, then nipping at the same spot.

Yuki lifted his hand up to Touya's hair. "It still seems weird to be living together. I'm not sure I'll ever get used to it. It was great of your dad to put that addition onto the house for me."

Touya shrugged; Yuki was close enough that he could feel it, even though he was facing away from Touya. "Yue needed to be closer to Sakura. Besides, you're family," Touya said simply.

It was said in such an off-hand manner that Yuki nearly didn't register what Touya had said. But when it did sink in to his mind, his chest tightened up a little bit. Touya wasn't the sort of person who talked about his emotions. But in his own little way, Touya made it obvious how much he cared.

Yuki sighed and put down his pencil, turning to face Touya for a soft kiss. "Alright," he said, "I'll let it be for tonight."

Next Chapter


	2. Chapter 1: Descent into Darkness

Pick Up the Pieces  
Chapter 1  
Descent into Darkness 

When Yuki woke up, he was disoriented. Something was wrong with his body. He couldn't move. Why couldn't he move? What...

Oh. They were in Yue's body. Well that explained that, but even that was a bit strange. They rarely slept in Yue's body, and he didn't remember...

Then a face loomed in front of his vision - Yue's vision - and it all came rushing back.

Since he had discovered Yue's existence, Yuki had steadily become better and better at remaining aware of what was happening while Yue was in control. The spells where he changed were no longer blank spaces in his memory, which was a profound relief. And he could still retreat into Yue's mind if he wanted to. But most of the time it was nice to watch over Sakura as Yue protected her.

Now, however...

Yuki felt a chill invading his entire body, even beyond the physical limits of the body itself. His mind felt cold, and he could feel Yue's conscious shivering as well. So cold.

The face in front of Yue's eyes smiled, and Yuki felt the temperature drop another few degrees as he desperately tried to piece together the chaotic memories that had swarmed into his mind at the sight of that face.

A man. This man. He'd been after Sakura, or rather, he'd been after her magic. She had been fighting him, but his speciality was draining magic, and he had nullified every attack. Then he had gone after Yue. It made sense; Yue was practically made of magic. For a while it had seemed like a stalemate, but then suddenly he had gotten a hand on Yue's arm and everything was cold, freezing cold, and Yuki had felt Yue start to black out. All he could think was that Touya would be so angry if they disappeared even after Touya had given them his magic, but then before he lost consciousness he heard Sakura yell "shield!" and suddenly, though it was still cold, the temperature stopped dropping.

And then they woke up here. 'Where are we?' Yuki thought. He tried to reach Yue's mind to ask him, but Yue had closed himself off, withdrawn into his own mind, and his walls were unbreachable.

The face was still there, above them, and Yuki realized that they were tied down to something. A lab table maybe; that might explain some of the cold. The straps were tight, and the expression on the man's face was beginning to frighten Yuki.

'It'll be okay,' he told himself. 'Yue's in control. Yue will know what to do. Yue isn't taken down so easily.'

The strange man ran a finger down the side of Yue's face, and Yuki shuddered.

"Your friend is very clever," the man said. His voice was deep and velvety, matching his dark hair and aristocratic features. There was something sharp about his face, menacing, despite its handsome appearance.

"Her magic appears to shield what is vital," he continued conversationally, one long, icy finger continuing to trail down Yue's jaw. "So I can't actually drain enough of your magic to kill you, unfortunately. It's a shame, really. You need a great deal of magic to sustain yourself, magic that could be put to far better use supporting my power. But I've taken as much as I can without threatening your existence, and even that is quite a bit. I think I'll keep you here a while. Maybe her magic will wear off, and then I can finish you."

He leaned close then, his eyes right before them, and Yuki suddenly realized that this man was probably quite insane. His eyes were fevered, mad, and desperately frightening.

'Why hasn't someone come for us?' Yuki thought frantically. 'How did we get taken in the first place? Where is Sakura? She must be okay. The shield card wouldn't still be working if she wasn't okay but where is she? Why is she leaving us here with this psycho?'

"Your energy is delicious," the man whispered, and lowered his head to Yuki's neck, licking a trail up to his jaw. Even then, Yue did not flinch, though inside him Yuki wanted to scream and strain at the bonds holding them to the table.

"I really don't like people interfering with my intentions." The voice came from around Yue's neck, and since Yue wasn't looking down, Yuki could only imagine the stranger's expression.

"I think I need to make an example of you. Show her that I am not to be trifled with. Either she'll let down this sheild and I'll have all of you, or she will come for you and see what I have made of you. If she doesn't want the same to happen to her, she'll do as I say. I don't want her life, after all. Just her magic.

He smiled then. Yuki couldn't see it, but he could feel it against their neck. "Either way, I'll have my toy now."

He moved then, climbing onto the table and straddling their body, his knees on either side of Yue's hips. He lifted his head back into Yuki's field of vision and licked his lips, a sick smile twisting his features. "Lovely," he murmured.

He ground his hips forward and down and Yuki recoiled. 'No. No, no, no, no... He's not... He wouldn't... No, please..."

Mercilessly, Yuki cut himself off, retreating into the back of Yue's mind where he wouldn't have to watch. He didn't want to have to see this. He didn't want to feel it. He'd rather be oblivious, take the black disorientation, the blank memory. Anything but this.

Then, just as he felt himself beginning to fade away, he had the sensation of being yanked forward, hurtling towards the light and suddenly he opened his eyes - _his_ eyes - and stared right into the face of his captor.

His first thought was that the man had somehow managed to pull him out and switch their bodies, but a look at his expression told Yuki that the man was just as surprised as he was. Although in a moment, the expression changed back to the malicious smile.

"My my, so we have a pretty brother as well, do we?" he murmured.

Yuki tugged at the bonds, feeling panic well within him. This wasn't supposed to happen. Yue was the one. Yue was the one who was supposed to protect Sakura, take the risks. He was just along for the ride. He wasn't supposed to be hurt, he wasn't-

In desperation, Yuki reached back in his mind towards Yue, only to find the walls as stiff and impenetrable as ever. No! Impossible! Yue had switched them, and was hiding in _his_ mind! That bastard! He was offering Yuki up as a sacrifice, shoving him out into danger!

"YUE!" Yuki screamed, thrashing violently. The man sitting on top of him chuckled and the sound made Yuki grit his teeth. "Get off of me!" he yelled. "Don't touch me!"

"Now that's what I like," the man murmured, ignoring Yuki's protests. "A fighter. Your friend was far too passive. I like the fighters." He leaned down and licked at the shell of Yuki's ear, eliciting a full-body shudder from Yuki. "It makes it so much more fun when I break you," he whispered.

'Yue!' Yuki called desperately in his mind, begging for mercy. But Yue was deaf to his pleas.

Yuki thrashed again as the man on top of him grabbed his crotch with one hand, the other sliding under his shirt. "You'll scream for me," the man said in an offhand sort of way, as though simply mentioning a fact. "One way or another, you'll scream. It's Rand, by the way, if you'd like to scream a name."

Yuki gritted his teeth in an attempt to hold back any noise.

But in his mind he was already screaming.

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	3. Chapter 2: Rescue

Pick Up the Pieces  
Chapter 2  
Rescue 

Cold. He was so very cold.

In his dazed, half-aware state, Yuki sensed the presence of someone close by.

'Please, please no. Don't let him be coming back. Don't let him touch me I don't want him to touch me anymore please make him go away I can't take this anymore-'

"Yukito-san?"

At the familiar hesitant voice, Yuki's eyes shot open and he strained his neck to peer in the direction of the voice.

Sakura. Thank God.

"Sakura," he tried to say, but his throat was raw and it came out as barely a whisper. She looked frightened, clutching her staff to her chest. Behind her came Tomoyo with her ever-present video camera, but the second she got a look at Yuki she lowered it and switched it off. For that, Yuki was grateful. It was bad enough that the two of them had to see him like this.

"Y-Yukito-san," Sakura stuttered, turning pink, "your clothes..."

"Just get him out of there! This is no time to be embarrassed about nudity!"

Yuki recognized that snapping voice as Kerberos. He couldn't see him, but he must have been there with them. Yuki's shame soared to new heights. How many people had to see him like this? Why did any of this have to happen?

He squeezed his eyes shut and heard Sakura call on the sword card. Then, the next thing he knew, his bonds were cut and he was being helped off of the lab table. Sakura and Tomoyo eased him onto the tile floor, but his feet were unable to support him and he slumped to the ground, shivering.

Now that he was off of the table, he finally had the opportunity to get a full view of the room. It looked like an operating room, sterile and antiseptic, no windows. There wasn't much there besides the table except a tray of tools and a chest off in one corner. Yuki looked at the heavy clasps on the thing, imagining the sound they would make when opened. He was pretty sure he knew what was in that chest.

_Snap. Snap. Click. _

_"Oh, you'll like this one. Of course it's not meant for someone of your size, but a slut like you won't mind, right? I'm sure you'll be able to... accomodate it. It's something that someone like you should learn to do anyway, so we'll make sure to work at it until it fits. Now, take a deep breath. This will hurt..." _

Yuki felt a whimper escape from him and didn't recognize his own voice. He felt soft cloth on his shoulders and looked up into the worried face of Sakura. She had taken off her cape (God knew why she had a cape - one of Tomoyo's odd costumes again, no doubt) and slung it around his shoulders. It was a bit small for him, coming to just above his knees, but it managed to hide the worst of the indignities and most of the scarring.

"Come on Yukito-san," said Sakura softly, "we have to get you out of here."

"What 'bout Rand?" Yuki mumbled.

"Out of commission," Kerberos answered. "For now, anyway; we found a way to stop his stupid magic draining thing, so he's powerless, but he still managed to get away from us. If we find him again though, I swear to God I'll kill him for this."

'Huh,' thought Yuki. It was funny, he hadn't thought that Kerberos cared.

"Can you stand?" Sakura asked.

Yuki tried, but stumbled. He ached too badly, all over his body. He wouldn't be able to walk out on his own. He shook his head miserably. On top of everything he was going to be a burden to Sakura and Tomoyo.

But then suddenly he felt something seize hold of him, and felt his mind flung backwards. Yue had taken over.

From his quickly-dimming conscious, Yuki felt Yue stand. Yue wobbled a bit; he still had the fatigue that came from the drained magic. But his body didn't have the kind of damage that Yuki's did, and he managed to stay upright.

"Yue?" Sakura asked, sounding surprised.

"I'll be fine to get us out of here," Yue said curtly. "Let's go."

Sakura led the way through a maze of hallways and rooms, all richly furnished in the style of a mansion. In the back of Yue's mind, Yuki curled himself into a ball and shivered, clutching himself as tightly as possible.

'How could you?' he whispered at Yue's consciousness. 'How could you let this happen to me? Why did you force us to switch? Dammit!' His emotions rose to a fury as he felt all the pain of - how long? days? weeks? - come bubbling up to the surface. 'How COULD you! God dammit! _I'm_ the one with a lover! I'm the one who stands to lose Toya over this! Why did I have to be your sacrifice! It's not like I would take any less damage than you! You're a magical being! You would have been less injured! WHY! GOD DAMN YOU TELL ME WHY!'

There was a long silence, and Yuki thought that Yue must not have been listening to him, probably had shut himself off again. But then-

_I could lie and tell you that I wished to remain rested in case an escape attempt became possible. But that is not the reason. My reason was very selfish, and you will not want to hear it._

'You're damn right I don't!' Yuki growled. 'I don't want to hear it! I don't want to hear anything from you ever again! Do NOT talk to me Yue!'

And then he felt his grip on consciousness slip, and he faded back into darkness.

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	4. Chapter 3: Bad News

Pick Up the Pieces  
Chapter 3  
Bad News 

Touya let the front door slam shut behind him and looked around desperately for a sign that Sakura was back. He'd been frantic ever since five days ago when Yue and Yukito had been captured on a mission with Sakura. His father insisted that he continue to go to school, but he couldn't pay attention to anything in his classes anyway. He was sick with worry, and he came home every day with the desperate hope that today was the day that she had found _something_...

"Sakura! Are you here?"

She appeared around a corner, a tentative expression on her face, and Touya's heart began to beat faster. "Did you find him?" he asked.

She nodded, but didn't say anything. Touya wanted to scream at her, but he knew it was just nerves and controlled himself. Never mind that she hadn't mentioned that Yuki was okay. Never mind that she looked so afraid, like a bearer of bad news. Yuki was okay. He had to be. He had to.

"Where is he?" Even trying to be calm, Touya's voice had a bit of a snap to it and Sakura flinched. Touya immediately felt bad, but he needed to know, needed to know what had happened to Yuki.

"He's upstairs," she said quietly. "He's in his room, but he's asleep."

Only this last stopped Touya from charging up the stairs himself. "Is he okay?" he asked.

Sakura stared at the ground. "O-oniichan, I... I think you'd better come sit down."

For an instant Touya stopped breathing. No. No. Impossible. Yuki was alright. He was alright, dammit! Yuki couldn't get hurt. Not now. Maybe... maybe something had happened to Yue. Maybe there was a problem with their magic or something. Yuki would be okay. He would be okay.

Touya followed his sister to the living room and sat down. Tomoyo was there and Kerberos, in his full guardian beast form. Both of them stared at him as he entered. He sat down on a chair across from Sakura, who sat on the couch next to Tomoyo.

Even after he sat down though, no one seemed to want to say anything. Sakura was busy staring holes into the floor, Tomoyo was concentrating on Sakura with an arm around her shoulders, and Kerberos was looking anywhere but at him. What was going on? Why was no one saying anything? Yuki was upstairs, asleep. He was home. He was alive. He must be fine. He was back now. Now things would be okay. Why weren't they saying anything?

"What's going on?" he finally asked into the silence, his voice sounding strained.

"O-oniichan, when... when we found Yukito-san, he... he was..."

And Sakura was crying. Dear God, why was she crying? Tomoyo tightened the arm around her shoulders and Sakura turned her head to Tomoyo's shoulder and she was sobbing. _Why was she crying?_ Touya's heart was beating a mile a minute and he felt his breaths coming far too quickly but he kept himself composed. Sakura not being in a state to continue, he turned to look at Kerberos.

Kerberos caught his eye and sighed, looking grim, but did not look away. "It looked as though he'd been raped," he said.

The words didn't make sense. "Raped?" Touya repeated.

Kerberos nodded and didn't say anything else.

"Is he okay?" Touya finally asked. It sounded stupid as soon as he said it out loud. Of course he wasn't okay. He'd been... No. Impossible. Not his Yuki. They had to be wrong.

"W-we don't know." Sakura sniffled, but it looked like she had gotten over her crying enough to talk. "He had to change back to Yue for us to get him home. As himself he couldn't even stand up. We had Yue change back once we'd gotten upstairs and Yuki was still passed out. He hasn't woken up since."

"Why..." Touya's throat felt dry and he cleared it. "If Yue was okay, then why didn't he do something to prevent it? If he could still change back, then why did you find them in Yuki's body? What was Yuki doing out in the first place?" Touya happened to glance down at his hands on the arms of his chair and saw that the knuckles were white. He forced himself to relax his grip and take deeper breaths.

"We don't know." This time it was Kerberos again. "Yue didn't say anything the entire way back. We wanted to ask him, but..."

"He had this _look_," said Sakura. "This ice look in his eyes and we just couldn't say anything. It was... too scary."

Touya stood up. "I'm going to go up and see him," he said. He turned to leave the room and no one stopped him.

Even having been warned, he wasn't prepared for the sight of Yuki's appearance. His lover looked as though he hadn't eaten in days. His cheeks were sunken and he was covered in bruises and cuts. There were deep dark circles under his eyes. Touya could only imagine what his body must look like; the covers on his bed were pulled all the way up to his chin. In the corner over the back of a chair lay a cape, one that looked like a piece of Sakura's latest costume from Tomoyo. It had several blood stains on it and a few other stains, less easy to identify.

Staring at Yuki's prone form from the doorway, Touya felt helpless. He hadn't felt this bad since his mother had died, not even when Kaho had left him. For the third time in his life he felt completely out of control, as though the universe had taken his life into its own hands and decided to rain hell on him. God, to see him lying there like that...

Touya crept into the room and walked as quietly as he could to Yuki's side, sitting on the edge of the bed. As soon as he did so, Yuki groaned and his eyelids fluttered. Touya held his breath and slowly Yuki's eyes opened.

Touya's heart nearly broke at the look of fear and confusion in Yuki's eyes. On instinct he reached down to brush Yuki's face with his fingertips, but to his surprise Yuki jolted back, nearly shooting to the other side of the bed and curling himself up against the headboard. He clutched tightly at the blankets, gathering them around his waist.

"Don't touch me!" he gasped out.

Now that the blankets had fallen off him, Touya could see Yuki's chest and if anything it looked worse than his face had. Large angry red scratches tore across him, along with bruises and welts of all descriptions. Some of them were still crusted in blood; he obviously hadn't had a chance to wash since he was brought back.

"Yuki..." Touya felt the name being ripped from him in pain. How could this have happened? How could something like this happen to his angel?

"Please don't touch me," Yuki whispered again, staring down at the blankets. He was crying too. First Sakura, and now Yuki was crying, the two people he loved the most in the same day.

Touya wanted desperately to hold Yuki, to calm him down and soothe away his pain, but if he even shifted closer Yuki cringed. So he sat awkwardly on the edge of the bed, feeling useless and incompetent, not knowing what to do with himself, as his lover cried softly next to him.

"Yuki," Touya said again, tightening his fist in the bed covers to keep from reaching for him, "what do you want me to do? Please, Yuki, how can I help you?"

"Just-" Yuki's voice was coming out in sobbing gasps, "just please leave me alone. I need- I need to take a shower. I need to get clean again. I'm not clean. I need- clean-" he ended with a choked-off sob.

Touya stood, his eyes closed, a mess of emotions swirling inside him. Pain, despair, rage, sorrow. But what Yuki needed was most important. He forced himself to walk to the door, pausing only when he had his hand on the knob.

He couldn't look back. He couldn't, and see Yuki in tears that he was unable to help. "If you need anything, anything at all," he said to the door, "please don't hesitate to come to me. Whatever it is, anything, whenever you need it, for any reason at all. Just please. I love you Yuki. I love you so much."

He turned the knob and walked out the door.

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	5. Chapter 4: Despair

Pick Up the Pieces  
Chapter 4  
Despair 

So that was it then. Touya couldn't even stand to look at him, look at this defiled body. He claimed to still love him but he couldn't even look, and he didn't know! He didn't even know what had happened. Yuki was sure that the second he learned it the love he thought he felt would change to disgust. There was no way that Touya would ever want to touch him again, not after that... that... _thing_ had had him. There was no way.

Yuki crawled out of bed, wrapping the blanket around him, and made his way cautiously to the bathroom, careful not to let anyone see him in the hall. When he got there he locked the door behind him and leaned against it for a moment, trying to calm his own emotions. He was irrationally afraid, though he had no idea of what. He gulped some deep breaths and stumbled to the bathtub, turning on the shower attachment and turning the water up as hot as he could stand. His skin still felt as though it was freezing and the where the water touched him it was so hot that it felt cold.

He dropped the blanket and stepped into the shower, drawing the curtain behind him. The hot water pricked his skin like needles. He looked around for something to scrub himself with. A glance found some sort of loofah-type sponge, probably Sakura's. He poured a generous amount of liquid soap onto it and ran it over his body but he quickly realized that it would not be enough. The filth was ground in, it had soaked into his skin. He needed something harsher, something that could cut into him and take away the dirt, and the pain, and the unclean. Desperately he dropped the sponge and clawed at the skin his his fingernails, raking long red paths on his arms.

He looked down at his chest and nearly screamed in anger and pain; his skin was covered in marks, dozens that he had not made himself. Lightly, he brought trembling fingertips to touch the long red welt across his abdomen. He remembered it. He could hear the crack of the whip that had left it, feel the sting as though it had just happened, remember the voice of Rand on top of him.

_"I said open your mouth, Slut. I meant now. There, good boy. Now don't even think about biting down. You'll only make it worse for yourself." _

Yuki didn't even realize he was falling; the next thing he knew he was on his knees, retching into the tub drain. Even in his desperation he knew that he would never be clean. He would never really be clean again. The dirt was on his soul, and it would never come off, never.

He bit back a moan that burst in his chest and dripped pain and heartache through his body. And Touya, precious Touya would leave him as soon as he found out. Yuki wouldn't blame him; who would want something so tainted as him? Who would want something so damaged? No, he couldn't hate Touya. Touya _should_ leave. It was right, it was only right.

Maybe Yuki was the one who should go. It was Touya's house, after all. The only reason he had come was because Touya wanted him, and now he didn't. And Yue needed to come to protect Sakura. Yuki clenched his teeth. Well, he'd seen how well Yue protected people close to him and Sakura would be better off without him.

Yuki nodded to himself, water dripping from the ends of his hair. 'I'll go,' he thought. 'I'll get out and leave them in peace. It will be better this way.'

He sat on the floor of the tub and felt tears come to his eyes. It wasn't fair. Why did something like this have to happen to him? His life had been so wonderful, and he'd taken it so much for granted. And now... now it was all over.

Yuki looked down at his fingertips, which had pruned from the water. How long had he been in the shower anyway? Didn't matter; he would never be clean anyway. He turned off the water and stepped out, grabbing a towel and drying himself roughly. Then he put on the fluffy robe he kept in the bathroom and threw the blanket back around his shoulders for good measure. After a quick peek into the hall to make sure no one was there, he darted back into his room and locked the door behind him.

He tossed the blanket carelessly onto the bed and went to his closet. He grabbed the first clothes that came to hand; not like it mattered what he wore out into the world. The important part was just to get away from here. Still... he paused and looked carefully for a moment, before snatching up a turtleneck sweater, even though it was too warm for one. He wanted to be covered, all covered as much as possible. In the back of his mind he felt as though people would see his skin and know what had happened to him. They would be able to tell; they'd see the dirt which wouldn't come out and in their minds they'd know and they'd laugh at him. The Slut.

Yuki flinched and pulled the turtleneck over his head. He walked back to his door and unlocked it, then lay a hand hesitantly on the knob. This was it. There would be no going back. He nearly choked on the sob that welled in his throat. He would never see Touya again. He couldn't. This was how it had to be.

He turned the doorknob and moved swiftly through the house, determined not to let anyone stop him. He even managed to avoid being seen all the way up to the front door. The second he stepped onto the stoop however, he felt his body being seized and his mind flung backwards.

He fought Yue's possession as the moon guardian took over, but Yue still had more will and more control in these areas than Yuki did. In a moment Yue's winged form stood on the front stoop and then turned and walked calmly back into the house and upstairs to Yuki's room.

'DAMN YOU!' Yuki screamed at him in his mind. 'LET ME GO! I want to leave so LET ME _GO_!'

"No," said Yue calmly out loud. "You are not leaving. I will not let you. If you try to leave again, I will simply transform again and bring you back. Do not do anything rash."

'I hate you,' Yuki spat venemously. 'I hate you with everything in me! I wish you had never created me! I wish Clow had never created you! I want you to die!'

_I understand._ This time Yue spoke into his mind. _I deserve your hatred, even had my motives been pure. But I will not let you give up on your life here. Not for this._

'Go to hell,' Yuki snarled.

Yue shrugged and relinquished control, changing back into Yuki's body. When he was himself again, Yuki collapsed onto the floor with a sob. So he couldn't fix it, couldn't end it, what was he supposed to do? What did Yue want him to do, just live in pain for the rest of his life? Probably, the sick bastard. Yuki wondered if Yue had been watching when Rand tortured him, watching from behind his walls and enjoying every foul second. Yuki clenched his fists in the carpet until his knuckles turned white and his hands began to ache but still he did not let go. The pain was real, it let him focus. It gave him a single point on which to focus his overwhelming anger. He felt his vision begin to fog over with red and fade out, and heard blood rushing in his ears.

In a vague sort of way Yuki realized that he was about to faint and ruthlessly forced himself to breathe deeply. He would not be found passed out on the floor and humiliate himself further.

When he could see again, Yuki grabbed the blanket off the floor and climbed back onto the bed, still in his clothes. He covered himself completely and curled into a ball, feeling utterly miserable.

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	6. Chapter 5: Advice

Pick Up the Pieces  
Chapter 5  
Advice 

**--------------------  
Yes, yes, I know. This part is especially soppy and cliche. -.- Sorry. Just go with it. I promise it gets better.  
--------------------**

Touya was starting to be really afraid. The last time he had been this worried, Yuki had been on the brink of disappearing. But at least then he'd had some idea of how to help, how to fix the problem. But now... Now he felt afraid and helpless at the same time, and this was not a combination he was used to feeling. It didn't sit well with him.

Yuki barely left his room anymore. When he ate, he ate barely as much as Sakura, which for Yukito was next to nothing. He rarely spoke to anyone, and his eyes always seemed to be focused on the ground. Touya had tried to talk to him more than once, but it was difficult. It was more than just his silence; it felt as though it was actually _hurting_ him to talk to anyone. And Touya couldn't bear to cause him any more pain than he was already in.

It got to the point where he was so desperate, he turned to his father for advice.

"I don't know what to do," he said quietly to his father, seated across from him at the dining room table. "He's getting worse, not better. I don't know how to help him. He's... he's in so much pain, and I don't know how to help him."

Fujitaka sighed. "It's a difficult situation. But of all the people he needs right now, you are probably the most important."

"How do you figure?" Touya said with a touch of bitterness. "I'm the one who reminds him of sex, right? And that's where his pain came from."

"Well..." Fujitaka paused, and Touya felt him considering his phrasing before he spoke. He listened carefully. Though he didn't often seek it out, his father's advice was almost always worth taking.

"Yukito's body was violated, Touya. It's not so much that sex reminds him of pain, although that too. Even though we don't really think about it, our bodies are something sacred to us. They are one of the few things that are completely ours through and through, with no one else to control any part of it unless we want them to. Yuki no longer feels like his body is sacred. Someone else took that control away from him. To him now, it's like a foreign object, something that has been profaned. It's no longer his. He doesn't really have much of anything that's only _his_ right now, especially if you consider that even his mind is shared with Yue."

"So what does that mean?"

Fujitaka shrugged. "Make him feel like himself again. Give him back his body."

"How am I supposed to do that?" Touya muttered.

Again his father shrugged. "You're his lover. You figure it out."

Touya blushed in spite of himself. Even though he knew that his father knew that Touya and Yuki had sex, it still felt really awkward for him to say it out loud. To cover his embarrassment, he asked, "How do you know so much about this?"

Fujitaka smiled. "I was a psych major in college before I went into archaeology. Didn't I ever mention that?"

"No..." Touya had begun to mull over what his father said, and was lost in thought. There had to be a way to convince Yuki that his body was his own again. He couldn't make the physical scars go away, but he was determined to heal the emotional ones. Yukito _would_ get better. He had to. He just had to, because Touya knew he couldn't survive without him. And that was that.

"Thanks Dad," he said. "You've given me a lot to think about."

"You're welcome," said Fujitaka. "Do your best with Yukito. We all miss his smiling face around here. He's a good boy."

Touya stood up and smiled at his father. Not every Dad would be so supportive of his son's boyfriend. But somehow it had never been an issue. He didn't really appreciate that often enough, he realized suddenly. With everything that had happened, now as well as before, his relationship with his father had never been a problem.

'Thank God for small miracles,' Touya thought. 'I have enough other things to deal with.'

"Touya." Touya paused in the doorway as his dad called out him.

"Yeah?"

Fujitaka hesitated a moment, then said, "Listen, you have to understand that he's not going to be the same. Even if he gets better, he's never going to be exactly like he was. Something like this changes people. You have to expect that."

Touya felt a chill run up his spine. He imagined Yuki with that despairing, dead look behind his eyes forever. But then he shook his head to banish that image. He couldn't think like that. It wouldn't help anything.

"I understand," he told his father. He went up to his room to think.

Fujitaka smiled softly after his son. All of them could feel how much pain Yuki had been in since he got back, although maybe some of them more than others. Ever since the incident, Fujitaka had known that Touya would come to him for advice, and so he had tried his best to think of a good way to explain it to him. Now, having done his poor best, all he could do was sit back and wait.

He glanced over at the picture of Nadeshiko that Sakura wished good morning every day at breakfast. In the picture, she was always smiling. Sometimes, Fujitaka thought, pain made life unbearable. You couldn't go on. But sometimes it made you realize that there were things in your life, good things, that you didn't appreciate enough. Sometimes the pain in life made the pleasures that much stronger. And sometimes, it was possible to heal.

'Once again,' he thought to himself, 'life continues.'

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	7. Chapter 6: Fire on Snow

Pick Up the Pieces  
Chapter 6  
Fire on Snow 

Touya put his hand on the the doorknob of Yuki's room. Moment of truth time. The last two nights he'd tried, it had been locked, but lately Yuki had been forgetting sometimes...

Success! The knob turned under Touya's hand. He took a deep breath and stepped into the room.

Yukito was curled up tightly in his bed, clutching his blankets around him. When he heard Touya entering the room he sat bolt upright, his eyes widening as Touya quietly shut and locked the door behind him. Doing his best to appear calm, Touya stepped up to the edge of the bed. "We need to talk," he said softly.

Yuki's face immediately fell and he stared down at his covers, sitting up. "I... I kind of figured," he mumbled. "You're here to break up with me, right?"

Touya grabbed Yukito so fast that it was a few seconds before the silver-haired boy could even react. When he realized he was in Touya's arms he struggled, flailing and squirming and shoving against Touya's chest, crazed as a wild animal trying to escape a trap. "Don't touch me!" he gasped. "Get away!"

"No!" said Touya. His voice came out harsh and raspy. "Calm down, Yuki. It's okay. I'm not going to hurt you."

Yukito continued to struggle, but Touya held on for dear life, keeping his arms tightly wound around Yukito. Finally, finally, Yuki's strength seemed to ebb and he stopped his flailing, settling with a sigh of exhaustion into Touya's arms. He sniffled a little bit, like he was going to cry, and Touya's heartstrings tugged with shared pain. Making Yuki cry was the last thing he wanted to do. But this was necessary, he reminded himself.

"Why are you doing this?" Yukito whispered.

"Listen to me Yuki." Touya shifted on the bed so that he was kneeling in front of Yuki, arms on his shoulders, staring deeply into his eyes. "I want you to listen closely, because this is important."

He continued to stare until he had Yuki's undivided attention. "Look at my hands, Yuki," he said, taking them off of Yuki's shoulders and displaying them palms up. "Listen Yuki. These hands are fire, do you hear me? They're flame. And wherever they pass over your body, wherever I touch you, they will burn, and they will burn away the pollution. I will burn his touch from you, Yuki. Everywhere they touch, he will be burned away and underneath your body will be new again. It will be yours, and it will be just as pure and clean as it ever was."

It should have sounded cheesy. Touya knew it should have sounded cheesy. But staring into Yukito's eyes, he forced the impact of his words to carry over to his lover, and he knew that Yuki felt their seriousness. He looked almost as though he were in a trance, the world around them suspended. They hung in a world where the words were real, as real as Yuki's shame and as real as the touch between them. Touya was intensely aware of the heavy sound of Yuki's breathing, still recovering from his struggle against Touya's hold.

Time between them seemed to stretch, slow down, and finally cease, until all that remained was their gazes, locked together forever. And then, the smallest of whispers from Yuki.

"Touya... I'll melt."

He had him. He understood, and Touya had him now.

"You won't melt," Touya assured him. "Only the outermost layer, the ice that's become mixed with dirt, that will melt. And the melted water will wash it all away. And underneath will be the pure pristine clean white snow that's always been there. I promise. I know it's still there, Yuki. I'll help you get it back."

Yuki stared at him, and Touya could feel a hunger in his gaze now, a need for the purification. He had swept Yuki up. He believed now, and only waited. Touya felt his heart swell a bit at the thought that even now, Yuki still trusted him enough to believe that Touya could heal him.

"But I won't touch you unless you ask me to, Yuki," Touya said. "It must be your choice. It is your body, Yuki. Yours to clean."

For a moment they were both still, staring at each other as they kneeled on the bed. Then, tentatively, Yuki reached out and took the wrist of one of Touya's hands in both of his. He lifted it up and placed it on his neck, one hand remaining on Touya's wrist while the other crept up to cover Touya's hand with his own. And it did feel like ice; Yuki's skin was freezing, Touya's palm a hot brand by comparison. Yuki shivered at the contrast as soon as their skin touched. But even so, he leaned into the fingertips, leaned into the burn, his eyes sliding half shut, his breath leaving him in a shuddering exhale. Touya could feel the pulse in his neck.

"Touch me," Yuki breathed. "Please."

Touya smiled and reached forward to comply.

**-------------------- **

**This section of the fic has been edited out due to the NC-17 restriction on this web site. If you would like to read the full un-edited chapter, you may do so on my web site, Kagedtiger's Dragon Nest, available on my profile or at: **

**dragonnest . 0catch . com / fics / pieces06 . html**

**(Copy and paste that address into your browser window and remove the spaces.) Whichever version you choose to read, I hope you are enjoying the fic. (Although I highly recommend the full version; I feel that certain details mentioned in it add to the atmosphere/flavor/value of the fic.) Now back to the clean stuff. **

**-------------------- **

And then he collapsed on top of Yukito, his breathing heavy and labored. Yuki was gasping to, although it sounded more like he was choking back sobs. Worried, Touya gently pulled himself out of Yuki and leaned up for a closer look. His heart sank; Yukito, eyes squeezed tightly shut, was crying. Had it all been for nothing after all?

But then Yuki opened his eyes and stared at Touya with such gratitude that it took Touya's breath away, what little he still had.

"Are you clean now?" he asked Yuki.

Yuki closed his eyes again and nodded. Touya drew Yukito's hands into his and kissed them. "Your body is yours again," he said. "It was never anyone else's. And it never will be. Always yours, and only yours."

"And yours," Yuki murmured. He looked on the verge of falling asleep. Touya reached over to the top of the bedside table, snagging a few tissues to clean them both off before Yuki could doze off.

Touya kissed his hair. "Only when you give it to me," he said.

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	8. Chapter 7: Confessions

Pick Up the Pieces  
Chapter 7  
Confessions 

When Yuki awoke the next morning, Touya could tell that something had changed. He was not better, not the way that Touya had hoped. He supposed it had been naive to hope that one night could solve everything. Yuki had been through a trauma that he couldn't even imagine. There was no way that they could just have sex and magically make everything all better.

But... something had changed. Today, Yuki looked more like a person with a serious problem, rather than a dead person in a body that happened to still be breathing. That morning, Yuki brokenly sobbed the entire ordeal into Touya's chest, as Touya listened with arms wrapped gently around him. A few times in the horrible tale he wanted to burst out through the door and beat someone senseless. But Yuki was most important, so he stayed and held on and felt Yuki's pain as though it were his own.

Afterwards Yuki clung to him, although he still wouldn't meet Touya's eyes. His sobs gradually died down to sniffles, and then simply to shudders. Touya rubbed his back comfortingly. "Your skin is really cold," he said, feeling the chill beneath his fingertips.

"It's the magic loss," said Yuki dully. "Actually, I'm warmer than I have been in weeks."

Touya hugged him a little closer as a thought occurred to him. "Is Yue feeling it too?"

Yukito's entire body tensed. "I don't know what that bastard feels, and I don't care. He can rot in hell for all I care."

Touya was surprised at the violence of Yukito's reaction. Although given what Yue had done to him, he couldn't really blame him. "Hey, Yuki..." he started.

"Hm?"

"Can I..." Touya wasn't sure he should ask this; he didn't want to upset Yukito. But he suddenly felt like he needed to know, needed to find out. "Can I talk to Yue? I want to ask him why. You don't have to listen if you don't want, but you can. I just feel like... well, he ought to answer for what he did. And you shouldn't have to talk to him if you don't want to, but I for one want to know why."

He finished and waited while Yuki thought it over. "I really don't know why you want to talk to that bastard." His voice held a note of betrayal and Touya winced. He had been worried Yuki might react like this.

"He owes you an explanation, Yuki," Touya repeated. "He's supposed to protect Sakura, and what's dear to her. He had no right to do what he did. I feel like someone should call him on it."

Finally, Touya felt Yuki nod and pull out of his embrace. His expression, when he faced Touya, still looked a bit wary, but not angry. "I'll change now," he muttered, and did so without further warning.

Touya sat back as white light filled the room, then came face to face with Yuki's alter ego. Yue looked tired, and worn. He also had in his eyes the saddest expression Touya had ever seen on his face, more emotion than Yue had ever displayed before in his presence. "I'm sorry," were the first words he said.

Touya felt some of Yuki's anger well up in him. "You should be telling him that," he snapped.

Yue hung his head. "I know. But he doesn't want to talk to me."

"I don't blame him." Touya stared at Yue's bowed head for a long moment in silence. "Why did you do it, Yue? Why did you let Yuki take that attack? You had no right to put him in danger."

"No," said Yue. "As I told Yukito, it was a selfish reason."

"Tell me," said Touya.

Yue crossed his arms, holding his elbows, and still refused to look at Touya. "At least Yukito has felt the touch of someone he loves, someone who loves him," he said. "He has you, and I knew you would forgive him anything. I knew you could help him to heal. But I... I have no one. Not like that." He tilted his head up and gazed at Touya through a curtain of his hair. "This body has never been touched. By anyone. Not that way."

Touya was surprised. "I thought... you and Clow?"

Yue shook his head. "I loved Clow. But he thought of me like a son. We were never lovers. I just... I could not stand the thought that the first person ever to be with me would be with me in anger and hate and violence. I may only be Sakura's guardian to all of you, but I am not without emotions. I have no lover, and I perhaps never will. Would you really wish on me that the only memories I would have of that experience for all of my long life would be of pain? No one would wash his touch from me, the way you did for Yukito. I have... no one."

Touya stared at him, unable to think of anything to say. He hadn't even thought of that. It never even occurred to him that Yue might be a virgin. Of course, looking at it now, it seemed painfully obvious. Why wouldn't he be? He had just seemed so... worldly. So full of wisdom and, well, the exact opposite of naive, whatever that was. And yet why should he have had a lover, even in his long life? It was difficult enough to become friends with someone that cold, let alone anything more.

Suddenly he couldn't hate Yue for what he had done, selfish or not. Even wanting to protect Yuki, he couldn't hate Yue for not wanting his memories to be filled with exclusively pain. Sometimes, he realized, it was hard to think of Yue as a person too, one with his own emotions and worries. Which was really doing him a disservice.

The silence continued to stretch on, until Yue made a the smallest noise of pain, as though he had pricked himself with a needle, and abruptly changed back into Yukito.

When Yukito returned, his eyes were wide, with the beginnings of tears in them, and Touya knew he had been listening. Without a word, Yukito leaned forward until his forehead rested against Touya's chest. "I didn't know," he whispered. "I didn't know."

Touya stroked his hair. "These things are never black and white, I guess."

"It was easier just to be angry with him," Yukito mumbled.

Touya sighed. "I guess nothing about this is really going to be easy."

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	9. Chapter 8: Mission

Pick Up the Pieces  
Chapter 8  
Mission 

Slowly, very slowly, things began to get better. But Fujitaka had been right; Yuki was different now. He had never been too talkative to begin with, but now whenever anyone saw him, he always seemed to be lost in thought. But he was eating more, which was a good sign, and he wasn't avoiding Touya, which was even better, although he wasn't eager to be around anyone else. He still couldn't manage to meet either Sakura or Keberos's eyes, but hopefully that would come in time.

But it looked as though they weren't destined to get that time.

"Yukito-san?" Sakura asked hesitantly.

Yuki was sitting outside on the grass in the sun, staring up at the sky. When Sakura approached him he looked down at her, although as usual he didn't quite make eye contact. "Yes?" he said softly.

Sakura looked back over her shoulder to where Kerberos was coming up behind her, in full lion form. Yuki's body stiffened a bit when he saw Kero. He realized what it meant. A mission.

"We think we found Rand," she said as Kero stopped next to her. "And we're going to go deal with him. You don't have to come if you don't want to. I mean, you know, Yue doesn't have to come with us if you don't want to be there. We won't make you. We just wanted to let you know."

There was a pause. Then Yuki asked, "What are you going to do with him?"

"Kill him," Kero answered immediately, snapping his jaws.

"Kero!" Sakura scolded. She held up a card. Change. "I was thinking that I'd use the Change card to change him into a bug or a frog or something. I don't want him coming back and doing bad things, but I don't want to kill anyone."

Yukito nodded, looking away from Sakura. He looked thoughtful. "If you went out there without Yue and something happened to you," he said eventually, "I'd never be able to forgive myself. Take him. You'll need all the protection you can get around that guy." He stood up and closed his eyes and within seconds, Yue was in his place.

"I will do my best," he said. "I will not allow us to be captured again."

Sakura smiled at him, her best "everything will be okay" smile. "I trust you," she said.

As Yue followed her out of the yard towards Tomoyo's waiting van, Yue turned his thoughts inward.

_Are you certain this is alright?_ he asked.

'Sakura must be protected,' thought Yukito. 'This has to be done. Are _you_ sure?'

_As you say, the Mistress must be protected._ Yue paused. _Yukito, I am... I am sorry for what I allowed to happen to you._

Yue felt the instinctual upswelling of Yukito's rage, which then subsided as Yukito worked to suppress it. 'It was a bad thing,' he said, which wasn't exactly forgiveness, but then, Yue had not been expecting any. 'Let's save our emotions for hating Rand.'

Yue almost but didn't quite smile. Channeling depression into anger. It seemed Yukito was learning a thing or two from him.

"Sakura!"

They all turned to see Touya in the doorway of the house, calling after them. "You're going now?" he asked, as they moved back toward him. His eyes fell on Yue and rested there. His frown looked worried.

Sakura nodded. "We have to do something permanent about Rand. We'll be back soon."

Touya's gaze still hadn't left Yue. But he didn't try to stop them. "Be careful," was all he said.

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	10. Chapter 9: Choice

Pick Up the Pieces  
Chapter 9  
Choice 

**--------------------  
You may have noticed a lack of things such as action sequences in this fic. That is because, sadly, I suck at those. -.- I suck at coming up with them, and I suck at writing them. And to me, they're usually the least interesting parts anyway; I prefer to get right to the juicy stuff with character emotions. **

**:coughcough: **

**So yes. The reason why there's no action in this fic is... I suck. Thank you.  
--------------------**

He looked remarkably innocent, lying passed out on the floor. Yukito, looking through Yue's eyes, was glad for once of not having his own body; he was pretty sure that if he was himself, he would be throwing up right now. It was crazy, that someone so sick and twisted could just look so... so... _normal_.

He hadn't taken long to find. Kerberos and Sakura had suspected that he'd want to return to his base of operations, so they'd left some kind of alarm system to let them know when he returned. Yuki wasn't really sure how it worked, something about the Dash and Illusion cards. But because of it, they'd been able to surprise him. The long hallway leading to this room showed the damage from where the Wood card's branches had surged through, cracking the walls and smashing furniture, following Rand and tripping him up, crashing over him and knocking him to the ground.

Yuki forced himself to calm down, reminding himself that he was no longer in danger. This man couldn't hurt him again.

Sakura walked up to stand next to Yue over the body, the Wood card clutched in her hand. She took a deep breath. "Well, I guess it's time to do what we came here for. Tomoyo has our frog. I'm gonna go back and get it." She turned and dashed out the door, ostensibly to get the frog from Tomoyo, who had lagged behind. Yuki suspected that in reality, she had just not been comfortable standing next to him as he stared down at his rapist.

Yuki felt Yue clench his fists, as he continued to stare down at Rand. It was one of the only indications that Yue was angry, the only indication, in fact, that he felt anything at all. But Yuki knew Yue by now. He knew how to read the small signs. It was only because of his enormous amount of self-restraint that Yue had not lept onto the man and started gouging his eyes out.

This pleasant thought was interrupted by a throat-clearing from the doorway. Yue turned to look and Yukito saw Kerberos standing there, facing out the door in the direction Sakura had gone.

Without looking at Yue, Kerberos said, "If you do it now, and quickly, I'll tell her that you had to do it. I'll say he woke up, struggled, and you had no choice. But you have to hurry."

Yue turned back to the body. Yuki knew what Kerberos was suggesting. It wouldn't be difficult. But they _would_ have to do it quickly, before Sakura returned.

_Yukito?_ Yue asked. _I could let you do it, if you wished. I would materialize the ice spear, then change, and you could do it with your own hands._

Yukito didn't respond. He felt... unsure. He knew that he should want it. He could imagine the feeling of triumph, rising like bile in his throat, as the ice spear pierced through the man's neck. For a moment he could almost feel himself pushing it in. The thought of victory burned in his mind like an angry wound, and he rode it out, imagining reveling in the feeling, letting it seep into his flesh.

And then suddenly in his mind's eye he saw Touya, and the feeling was replaced by icy cold as he imagined the disgust in Touya's eyes.

'No,' he told Yue. 'I just got this body clean, I'm not going to stain it again with blood, not even his. I couldn't face Touya if I wasted everything he did for me. Just... let him live. Why don't we just let Sakura do whatever it is she was planning. It... it wouldn't be worth it, to let someone die on one of her missions. She's so innocent still. It's the least we can do.'

_It is your decision,_ said Yue. _Are you certain?_

Yuki took a deep breath. 'Yes. I'm sure.'

Yue bowed his head and said nothing, then turned to look over his shoulder, watching for Sakura's return.

There would have been plenty of time, if they had decided to do it. Sakura was away for so long that Yuki began to suspect that she was specifically giving them time to kill him if they wanted. Perhaps she was less innocent than she looked. By the time she returned, it was quite possible that Rand could have woken up; Yuki was a bit surprised that he hadn't.

Sakura looked a bit surprised when she returned to find Rand whole and still breathing, which supported Yuki's theory about the reason for her delay. But she was clutching the frog in one hand and her wand in the other and came forward resolutely.

"What took you?" Yue asked in his usual blunt, tactless manner.

Sakura jumped, and her face turned scarlet. "Oh, well, uh, um, it... it sort of escaped. So Tomoyo and I had to catch it."

Yuki doubted that, but Yue held his peace and didn't argue. Tucking the wand under her arm, Sakura drew out the Change card. Then she stepped forward and placed the frog on Rand's chest, hurriedly calling the card before the little creature could hop away.

"Change!"

A small point of green light, roughly the size of a marble and the shape of a tadpole, shot out of the frog and towards Rand. And the same time, a blue light of the same description left Rand, but this one was surrounded by a pale, glowing aura, a white sphere about half a foot in diameter.

The green light sunk into Rand without trouble, but the blue light, upon hitting the frog, seemed to shatter. The central spark, the tadpole-shaped blue light, shot through the white aura and into the frog, while the aura itself exploded. Shards of it drifted through the air, like glass feathers, and a large portion of them drifted towards Yue.

Yue closed his eyes and lifted his arms, and for a moment Yuki wondered what the hell he was doing. But then suddenly he felt the warmth returning to their body. He had been cold so long, he had forgotten that he had ever felt any different, but the sudden contrast reminded him of warmer, better days in the past. The stolen magic flooded back into him, and with a start, Yuki realized that he recognized it.

It carried a faint undertone, a special warmth and a barely noticeable flavor of peaches. Toya. Touya's magic that he had given to Yue, so much of which had been taken away. It flooded back into him, filling him up to the tips of his fingers, warming them and bringing life back, chasing away the lingering cold.

Yuki smiled to himself and gave a little shiver of pleasure. He hadn't been aware of how much he had missed the magic when it was gone. He couldn't use it himself, but the lack of it had made him feel hollow and incomplete. At the time, he had attributed it only to the rape, but now...

Now he could be warm again. He hadn't lost Touya's magic after all. He hadn't wasted the sacrifice.

Only now, as he released the worry, did he realize how much that had been troubling him.

"What do we do with the frog?" Kerberos asked.

They all looked down at it. It seemed to wobble around a bit woozily, as though it couldn't control its own body. Then suddenly it hopped forward twice, turned around, and hopped back onto Rand's body. Yuki tried to imagine Rand's mind in the tiny green body, but somehow he couldn't. It looked so much like a frog, moved so much like a frog...

"How can we be certain he is really changed?" Yue had read Yuki's thoughts and voiced his concern.

"Well," said Sakura, "the Change is supposed to be able to feel the results of its own spells. It should let us know if anything is wrong, and it hasn't."

Suddenly Rand's eyes opened. Yue took an involuntary step backwards, so great was the wave of Yuki's fear.

But Rand simply sat up and stared at the wall for nearly a minute. Then, startling them all again, his body jerked, twitching upwards slightly as though... as though he was trying to hop.

"I feel kinda sorry for the frog," said Tomoyo. Yue turned to look at her. When had she come into the room? She had her camera out as usual and was pointing it towards the newly changed pair.

"I'm sure he'll get used to it," said Kerberos cheerfully. The frog in Rand's body was now twisting his head around, trying to look around the room as much as possible. Then suddenly it spotted them and leaped backwards, or tried to, it's body sprawling in a heap as its new limbs failed to obey it.

"Hmmm," said Tomoyo thoughtfully. "Sakura?" she asked, "Can you make him little?"

"Why?" asked Sakura, though she was already reaching in her pocket for the card.

"I think I'm going to take him home," Tomoyo replied. "I'll take care of him, at least until I'm sure he'll be okay. It'll be fun, like having a pet." She smiled brightly.

This, thought Yukito, was certainly a coversation he had never imagined hearing.

Even Sakura sweatdropped. "Won't your mom think it's weird?"

Tomoyo continued to smile. "I'm sure she won't notice."

"Well, if you want," said Sakura, and threw the new card into the air. "Little!"

Moments later they were walking out the door, the new tiny Rand cupped in Tomoyo's hands. No one bothered to ask what they were going to do with the frog; they left him hopping around the room, looking distraught. As distraught as a frog could look, anyway. As they were leaving, Kerberos discreetly stepped on it, though not hard enough to kill it, Yuki was pretty sure.

Mostly sure.

Probably.

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	11. Epilogue

Pick Up the Pieces  
Epilogue 

Yukito sat on the windowsill and watched the rain sheet down from a slate gray sky. It had been raining since he woke up that morning, and something about it had drawn him to sit and watch. He smiled when he felt Touya's arms wrap around him from behind, Touya's breath warm against his cheek.

"The rain is really beautiful," Yuki said.

"I thought you didn't like the rain?" Touya's soft murmuring voice by Yuki's ear sent small thrills up his spine.

"I don't think I ever really looked at it before. But now... I mean, just look. And how fierce it is? It just makes it even better that we're inside, warm, safe." Yuki put a hand on one of the arms around him. Speaking of safe. Touya's arms was still one of the only places that he felt completely safe. "Besides, the worse the rain, the better it'll be when the sun shines again, right?"

He felt Touya smile against his cheek. "I guess you could look at it that way."

They were silent for a long moment as the rain pelted against the window in a steady drumbeat.

"It makes sense, you know, that Rand was a rapist," Yuki said suddenly.

Touya raised his eyebrows, but didn't comment, waiting for Yuki to continue.

"I mean, he stole magic. It was practically like rape to begin with. I imagine moving on to the physical part of it would only be the next logical step."

Touya considered this, mulled it over. If the removal of Yuki's magic had been like rape, that certainly gave a new connotation to Touyadonating his to Yue. He decided not to mention it, in case it might upset Yuki. Instead he said, "But you have yours back now."

Yuki nodded. "I guess that's what makes the difference. What makes it more like stealing than like rape. You can actually get it back."

"Well," said Touya, "under that logic, if you look at it another way, you could say that the difference is that in rape, nothing is really taken from you."

Yuki smiled. "I don't know about that. I think something was taken. But... I think maybe I have it back now after all."

Touya raised one hand to pet Yuki's hair. His gaze fell back onto the rain outside. "Do you know what the weather's supposed to be like tomorrow?" he asked.

Yuki shook his head. "I'm not sure. It could go on like this, or it might clear up. Does it really matter?"

Touya dropped his hand from Yuki's hair to his warm neck, feeling the strong comforting rhythm of Yuki's pulse underneath his fingertips.

"I suppose not," he murmured.

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